Chickpea price plummets as market collapses

The price for chickpeas has plummeted nearly 20 per cent in the past 10 days as over-extended buyers on the subcontinent liquidate their excess stock.

The resulting glut of sellers and no buyers means traders are struggling to find markets for the Australia pulse crop.

Pentag Nidera trading manager Rob Brealey says there have been several causes of the current pulse market problems.

"In Bangladesh their market has crashed, Bangladesh being one of the major importers of Australian chickpeas," he said.

"Essentially what has happened is they've imported too many peas and the market is struggling to digest those, so the traders and importers are all trying to sell into a market that's heavily burdened.

"This is happening at the same time as India was expected to be importing peas again, but it would appear India's crop is a fair bit bigger than originally thought and that's meant that they haven't really shown up as an importer at this stage."

There are also old crop chickpea supplies still in farmers' hands.

"Add further to that, many of us in the trade are experiencing defaults on contract, so peas that we had already sold into places like Bangladesh are now not getting executed, so we have to find alternate destinations for those.

"All that has led to a contagion where the market has just collapsed underneath us," Mr Brealey said.

This is happening at a time when Queensland's chickpea crop is ticking along nicely.

Biloela grower Darren Jensen says with a promising crop in the ground, the floundering price is disappointing.

"It is very frustrating but we'll just take it as it comes," Mr Jensen said.

"A large percentage of our chickpeas we locked in at that $505 price from earlier in the season. Anything we get over that will be an issue, for sure."

Overall though, Mr Brealey says it will take a month or so before the market conditions become clearer.

"The outlook at the moment is very unclear and I think it's prudent not to panic at this time.

"As we get into late August and early September and we get through Ramadan and the holiday period, the situation will become clearer."